DAY 3: DISSOLVING SICKNESS, PAIN & GRIEVANCES WITH LIGHT I hope you are finding time to sit quietly with these daily lessons. I notice since we started this program that my own life has become unusually BUSY. It s important to keep turning within, to give yourself space in the day when you can sit quietly with no distractions to contemplate these lessons, practice, apply, and NOTICE WHAT YOU ARE NOTICING. This 40- Day Program is about becoming conscious to the thoughts and feelings that have been driving your life (mostly unconsciously) all these years. Today s topic is about HEALING WITH LIGHT. TODAY S PRACTICE: REALIZE THAT YOU RE A MIRACLE WORKER Think about one person you don t like, who irritates you, and practice Lesson 121 and find some light in that person. This lesson will show you that you have the ability to shift your perception and see the person differently.
There is a light in you that is SO POWERFUL and SO MAGNIFICENT that it will immediately dissolve everything that is not part of the light, anything that is not part of the Divine Plan of your life. There are beautiful reminders all through A Course in Miracles that LIGHT IS WHAT YOU ARE. Here is a video of good friends of mine, singing Lesson 156: I walk with God in Perfect holiness the reminder that THERE IS A LIGHT IN YOU WHICH CANNOT DIE WHOSE PRESENCE IS SO HOLY THAT THE WORLD IS SANCTIFIED BECAUSE OF YOU. The Light in you is what the universe longs to behold. All living things are still before you, for they recognize Who walks with you. The light you carry is their own, and thus they see in 2
you their holiness, saluting you as Savior and as God. Accept their reverence, for it is due to Holiness itself Which walks with you, transforming in Its gentle Light all things into Its likeness and Its purity. This is the way salvation works. As you step back, the Light in you steps forward and encompasses the world. It heralds not the end of sin in punishment and death. In lightness and in laughter is it gone, because its quaint absurdity is seen. - A Course in Miracles THIS LIGHT IS SO POWERFUL THAT WHEN YOU HOLD IT IN YOUR AWARENESS CONSISTENTLY AND WITH CONSTANCY ALL THINGS NOT OF THE LIGHT BEGIN TO DISSOLVE, UNTIL THEY RETURN FROM THE NOTHINGNESS FROM WHICH THEY CAME! As things that are no longer serving you start dissolving and disappearing from your life, it can appear that things are falling apart or dismantling. Let it fall apart. Let it fall away. Keep your attention on the light. The most powerful thing anyone ever said to me that changed my life was the Master Teacher. He said to me one day: YOU ARE ALL LIGHT. THERE S NO DARKNESS IN YOU. In that moment, I got it. Up until that moment, I though I was ALL DARKNESS 3
with a few brief moments of light here and there. After years of reading the Course and NOT getting it, with that one statement, I understood. I M ALL LIGHT. Everything else is my own nightmare and does not exist. YOU ARE ALL LIGHT. Everything else are false ideas you picked up in time and space, and they have to go! They are blocks and obstacles and not to be taken seriously. Today I want to introduce a very powerful and practical exercise that will transform your life. It s described in detail in Lesson 121: Forgiveness is the key to happiness. You can either write this down in your journal OR just spend some quiet time doing the exercise. Think of someone you do not like, who seems to irritate you, or to cause regret in you if you should meet him; one you actively despise, or merely try to overlook. It does not matter the form your anger takes. You probably have chosen him already. He will do. Now close your eyes and see him in your mind, and look at him a while. Try to perceive some light in him somewhere; a little gleam which you have never noticed. Try to find some little spark of brightness shining through the ugly picture that you hold of him. Look at this picture till you see a light somewhere within it, and THEN TRY TO LET THIS LIGHT EXTEND UNTIL IT COVERS HIM, AND MAKES THE PICTURE BEAUTIFUL AND GOOD. Look at this changed perception for a while, and turn your mind to one you call a friend. Try to transfer the light you learned to see around your former enemy to 4
him. Perceive him now as more than friend to you, for in that light his holiness shows you YOUR SAVIOR, saved and saving, healed and whole. Now unite your enemy and friend in blessing with this light. - A Course in Miracles, Lesson 121 Do you notice this lesson DOES NOT ask you to look at what you think the person did??? It merely asks that you see this person as you think you see them now AND THEN MAKE A DECISION TO SEE THEM DIFFERENTLY FILLED WITH LIGHT. This practice is not concerned with the situation. It s doesn t care about the story. It s only concerned with your idea of the image of what you are looking at. You have an idea, feeling, thought or emotion about a person. The lesson is asking you to look at your thoughts around the situation. Look at the picture you made. Now, instead of telling a story, instead of trying to fix or control or change the situation at all, you are now going to use the power of your mind to find light in that person which is only a process going on in your mind. A Course in Miracles describes this process as forgiveness. I can remember years ago I was in conflict with everyone, everything and myself. I can remembering living that way. I used to think If only so- and- so would behave differently, or if only I had more money, or more opportunities, or if I didn t have to work so much, then I would be happy. One day I realized the perfect moment never arrives. Conditions are never right my ducks were never lined up in a row, and were never going to be lined up in a row perfectly. 5
That was the day I started living, I started taking more chances, I started telling people I loved them, realizing it s now or never. The other day I was asked to find a situation that was bothering me, I couldn t find one. You will see that after you ve been doing this work for a while, literally all those upsetting situations just dissolve and there s nothing left but peace and happiness. You re just a clear pure empty channel, there s nothing left. There are no stories there anymore. This is where light starts to pour through you. This is a course in miracles. Lesson 121 is simply asking you now, to send light, to send love to this person who is bothering you. It s a practice where you re not trying to fix a problem. You re done with that. You know that doesn t work. You re recognizing now that your mind is joined with that other person. 6
Your imagining I just want you to really imagine light in you. Know that. Say it. I am light. I am all light. That s what you are. You are all light. There s no darkness in you. Whatever ideas you have about darkness in you, are ideas. They are not true. You re all light. God only created light. Now you are really seeing that you have a decision. You can either continue to use your time to tell stories and complain and defend your self. OR.. You can make a decision that you re going to see everything is an opportunity for healing. Every single person that comes into your mind is there as your own imagery. 7
You re going to find how do I feel around this person? How am I feeling in my life? If you re feeling anything but joy, that is a place there is a block in you. There s a place when something got stuck in you as an idea. A Course in Miracles says that if you don t heal it now in this situation with this person that you re thinking about, with this person in front of you, (if you push it away and try to fix it, change it), it will show up in some other situation, in another person. Because you never healed it in your mind. Until it is healed in your mind, it will continually keep showing up in different forms. EVERYONE WHO HAS A COURSE IN MIRACLES KNOWS THIS, at least intellectually they know it, and yet isn t it interesting, there is still a temptation to think someone else is doing something to us, and that THEY are they problem. What s needed here is light. It looks like your sending light to your brother, but you re not. You re sending light to yourself. I love the idea of atoms and molecules, this sea of energy, of particles and waves and light. We are the only thing that ever gets in the way, that puts a wall in here, because there is no wall there. Everything is one. Everything is perfect harmony with everything else. Look at nature. It s beautiful. It knows exactly what to do. But we get in the way. We have our judgments. They put a wall up. That wall needs to be dissolved. This lesson, Day 3, Dissolving grievances with light is, you will literally see your problems falling away. You re going to be so amazed when you do this. It s a commitment to not fix, change, or solve any problem any more. You re going to be confronted with something, it s immediately going to cause a reaction within you, whatever it is, anger, worry, fear, doubt, jealousy and you ll pinpoint the person or the situation that seems to be upsetting you. 8
What does A Course in Miracles say? I m never upset for the reason I think. The reason you re upset is because you think your brother is separate from you and there s a memory in you that knows, that s not possible. Of course you re upset. God only created Oneness and now you see two. Of course you re upset. The pain is intolerable. We ve learned ways to manage it. We ve learned ways to keep it under control. One of the top ways people attempt to manage is rage. It s rage to find ourselves in a condition, but we ve learned we can t have the rage, so then it s always there just under the surface. You ve managed to put a nice face on it. You say: I m not mad. I m okay. I m fine. But you re not fine. You re pissed off. It s faster to say I m pissed off and then to simply apply the lessons to the situation than it is to pretend you are spiritual and kind and good. Lesson 333 in A Course in Miracles says: Forgiveness ends the dream of conflict here. Conflict must be resolved. It cannot be evaded, set aside, denied, disguised, seen somewhere else, called by another name, nor hidden by deceit of any kind, if it would be escaped. It must be seen exactly as it is, where it is thought to be, in the reality which has been given it, and with the purpose that the mind 9
accorded it. For only then are its defenses lifted, and the truth can shine upon it as it disappears. Then there s a prayer: Father, forgiveness is the light You chose to shine away all conflict and all doubt, and light the way for our return to You. No light but this can end our evil dream. No light but this can save the world. For this alone will never fail in anything, being Your gift to Your beloved Son. Often you hear people, especially in A Course in Miracles saying, I s not real. I don t have to look at it. I don t have to look at it because it s an illusion. In a moment of complete honesty, you ll see that route has not been working for you. It doesn t work that way. You actually have to look at the stuff. You have to bring it up. THIS IS THE PRACTICE. You bring it up in your mind. DON T TRY TO BE NICE OR SPIRITUAL. Those are ego concepts. Trying to be good is an ego idea. This isn t about being good. YOU ARE POWERFUL. This is not about being nice. 10
YOU ARE LIGHT. LIGHT ISN T NICE. LIGHT DOESN T DO GOOD DEEDS. LIGHT SHINES. A Course in Miracles is about really coming into a recognition of who you are. As light. Extending it. Allowing it to flow. Not blocking it anymore. One of the things that I ve felt over the years is that SICKNESS AND PROBLEMS OCCUR WHEN YOU HOLD THE LIGHT IN, when you block it with fear. I know that sounds crazy. It s an idea I ve known for a long time. Light is extremely powerful. If you re not allowing it to flow through you, it goes like poison in your body. It needs a place to flow. If you re just keeping yourself all tight in a tightly 11
wrapped fearful system and your not allowing yourself to express yourself, (that s why I created the Facebook page, I want you to express yourself, to start what it is to be alive. Let yourself make mistakes. Don t try to be a perfect teacher, don t try to be a perfect person. Just let yourself, be yourself. Let this be an experiment ground for you. Where you can let the energy move. Find out what creative ideas are coming to you and share them with us. That Facebook page is just a place for you to play. Play like a kid. Be like a kid there. 12
The commitment is to really keep coming back to the center. Catch yourself. Remember on Day 1 we talked about what s your language? What s your I? What s your I am? Before you start telling victim stories, or blame or guilt stories, take a moment to to say, OK, what am I saying here? Who is the I? Who is telling this story here? Now your going to use your journal. I don t want this to be a constant searching for stuff. Some people stay in therapy for years. That s not what this is. This is a practice that s going to allow you to catch a thought when you re having it. You catch it, and instead of telling a story about it, you re going to immediately be aware of the thought, and then do this practice: sending light to the thought, to the person, to the situation. Once you become aware, you will notice that there is chatter in your head ALL, DAY, LONG. Just notice it. It s constant. All day long, you ve got thoughts that never stop, that never tire because you don t confront them. They become like a lullaby and they put you to sleep. You tolerate it. You let it keep playing as background noise. Sometimes it s a song that keeps playing. Often its mindless things like your To- Do list or thoughts about who you are going to invite to your birthday party which is three months from now, or thoughts about what someone did to you last year (or five years ago or twenty years ago). It s a radio that never gets turned off. It s been in the background your whole life so much that you don t even notice it anymore. It s just always there, always broadcasting. So you start noticing these thoughts you will MARVEL when you see it how 13
they thoughts command your attention and make you blind to what is in front of you. You will be out riding your bicycle, it s a gorgeous day, the sun is shining, you re riding past rivers and lakes and towns and children and people passing by, but you will realize you don t see any of it because you re paying attention to the broadcast in your head: what to eat for dinner, or what to wear to work tomorrow or how to pay that overdue bill. This is what Jesus means when he says he will HEAL THE BLIND. Your healed of blindness when you notice that radio broadcasting thoughts all day long. So you begin to know there s a whole other way of living. A whole other way of being. Which is looking at everything with gratitude, finding the good in the situation. A Course in Miracles talks about a scavenger dog. It says the ego, the human being, the limited, fearful part of the mind that is not true goes searching for things that are wrong. I m going to find something and I m going to hurt that guy. I m going to find something bad. The spirit of you, the truth of you goes looking for something good. And you can live this way. I live this way. People laugh when they re with me. I don t allow conversations to go negative. I m always looking for an opening where I might be able to say, tell, hey now tell me something good. Let s look at this in a different way. You will begin to see, as you allow light to just flow through you. It s flowing through even when you re not doing anything. Even when you are sitting and thinking about a person or a situation. Catch how you are thinking about it. Be mindful. You will become aware of a thought like, Oh, I m thinking about how I might fix this situation. Or I m, thinking about how I might be able to change it. Then you re going to catch the thought and say, NO. I don t do that any more. I caught you. You can t trap me anymore. Now I just send love to the situation. 14
Instead of thinking about what needs to change in the person or situation, just take a moment and send love. Stop what you are doing and send love. In your mind, surround them with love. The way I do it is, I think of light coming out of my heart. I think of it as white, not like white paint, but a shimmering pure light coming from my heart. It s pure. Everywhere I go, everyday, there is that light. I open my heart straight away in the morning. I say I am an open channel for this love to pour through me. It s God, It is pure joy. I just want to use my life to love the way God loves. Letting God love through me, as me. So you begin to be in a practice of realizing where you are everyday. Imagining your heart is open and light flowing out really effecting everybody. You see it going 15
out surrounding people. You will be amazed. You will be so amazed. This is the idea from the Bible of sending Christ before you. He will go before you and make the path straight and you will see that as an experience. All day long you are allowing the LIGHT THAT YOU ARE to extend out to all these people and situations you are just flooding them with love. Instead of complaining, you send love. Instead of attacking, you imagine light going to the person. Instead of vomiting up old stories of how you are a victim, you use your words to extend your appreciation. 16
So today, think about one person you don t like, who irritates you, and practice Lesson 121 and find some light in that person. This lesson will show you that you have the ability to shift your perception and see the person differently. You re a miracle worker. Love, Lisa 17
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